Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-05-12

"A BassOn journal ON the sub5ecs of
RraEn-Forcing Ia Ohiidhsod.
Boston Herald.
Entirely too much ado bias been made
over the fright oocasioned mothers 1900
years ago Ia little village OF Judea, |
when King Herod sent out his soldiers
with orders to slay all the children from |
two years old and UNDER What Gid the |
simply local distress wrought there |
amount to- In comparison with the terror |
spread througha population Of 30, 000, 900 |
or &C, 000, 600 in the United States by the |
medical King Herods Of to-day the men,
for example, who, like DR.. Hammond of |
New York, issue periodically their frantic |
pamphlets on "Brain-forcing in Child |
hood, and get them reyerberated through |
tho press till the last echoes hardly die |
away this side the gulf of Mexico2
Not a mother but, beside her
self al the frightful perils suggested,
snatches up her jolly, beef-eating little
Tom or her roly poly, lazy littls s,isan,
and demands of herself in sharp distress
what she can do 10 save them from the
fatal results Of consuming cerebral over
action. High time is II that some COM
nonsense were exercised on this appail-
ing subject; for il all school education is
coming 70 be viewed 10 the same lurid
light with measles and scarlet fever, then
the question "Why have any children at
all ?" will become the burning issue of
the dry. In point of simple fact, some
boys and girls thrive on vigorous stint
Of brainwork, while some cannot stand 1t;
just exactly as some of them CON
trive to manufacture strong bone
and muscle out of doughnuts and
mince pies, while others can only work
these viands up into headaches and dys-
pepsia. Now, 30 long as we are to have
system of public education, il is simply
out OF the question that the puniest and
most feeble-mindsd should set the pace al
which all the rest of the pupils are 70
follow. IL fairly HeeinH aa though there
was conspiracy on the part OF cerebral
d letors-like DIR. Hammond and the fol-
lowers who re-echo him in the medical
Journals to make out the human brain TO
Oe the most rickety and crazy of all the
organs of the body, something, indeed,
that will fly TO pieces like a snap
dragon seed vessel at the slightest
touch of book of grammar
or arithmetic. The matter is utterly
oyerdone, and the scare communicated to
parents is, nine times out of ten, false
alarm, Brain work, with the great ma
iority of children, is wholesome and
tonic. II invigorates mind and body
alike. II supplies them with healthful
variety OF interest, keeps them out Of
mischief, and oorrects thousand dis
orders of imagination and brooding sensi-
iiVeneas. A vigorous boy or girl must go
| along ut n good pace, and, at the same
time, be exercised in grasping number
| of subjects. Otherwise, the mind will
never warm up to its work.
Now, If men like DIR. Hammond and
many another brain-alarmist would con-
fine themselves 10 emphasizing the un-
| questionable fact there is a certain pro-
| portion of boys and girls SO feeble of di-
| gestion, so low in blood circulation, and
10 lacking in muscular tissue, that their
| vital organs cannot keep their brain in
nny state of vigor, and that, therefore,
to force such children TO study, is cruelty
or madness, some practical good may be
tifected. But to make this fact the oeea-
sion for such indiscriminate assaults ON
the iniquity of grammar for all, and the
outright diabolism of geometry for girls,
il worse than blunder-it is crime.
The grand fault of the education of the
day is not that it is too rigorous. II
is too looee and slipshod, and does not
put strain enough on such as have a sound
mind in a sound body. Parents, in the
exercise of tenth part the judgment
they bring to bear on their horses or theiI
lapdogs, ought to be able to judge fol
themselves whether the school life il
physically hurting their children. II the
children look sallow and bloodless, have
no appetite for wholesome food, and tost
uneasily in their sleep-then, to subject
them further to the process, is cruel
wrong. In such case, the first duty and
the first mercy is to build up their bodies
But to worry ones self to death lest Bills
and Sallie's brains should prove the ruiz
of them, while they come leap-frogginf
over one another out of school, eat every
thing set before them, and sleep ik,
rocks, is certainly to run after needless
worry.